Ar Tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel

Much time is spent exploring the environments which are confined at first but get more open later in the game. Here there are treasure chests with better equipment to find, dungeons to visit and randomly started battles to fight. Those fights take place on a separate screen and because they are real-time based, only one of the up to three party members is directly controlled by the player. However, the game is paused when the combat menu is opened which allows performing special attacks, using items or switching to another character. The specialty of the combat systems is the Reyvateil who is always an additional member of the fighting party.

The second major part of gameplay is the interaction with the Reyvateil party members. Besides decisions made during the story (which may have significant consequences on its flow), the player can initiate dialogue about various topics. While conversation is possible with all party members, it is important to build a connection with the Reyvateil so the player can dive into her Cosmophere and deal with her deeper psychological problems. This mostly plays out with dialogue, but there are also some special sequences with other mechanics.